Beverage substance cartridge, water filling apparatus, beverage producing equipment, beverage producing system and beverage producing method

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a beverage substance cartridge, a tea filtering apparatus, a beverage producing equipment, a beverage producing system and a beverage producing method to efficiently solve the problem that a tea brewing equipment of the present technology has problems like slow tea leaf extraction, long tea drinker waiting time, low tea water temperature, bad tea water taste, etc. The water filling apparatus of the beverage producing equipment fills hot water into the bottom of the beverage substance cartridge near the side wall of the cartridge body, and forms vortex in the beverage substance cartridge which speeds up extraction efficiently. Furthermore, inside convex edges are set at the side wall of the beverage cartridge and hot water temperature is high enough to strengthen extraction effects and then realize rapid brewing effects in the tea brewing equipment. The beverage producing equipment adopting the invention could be widely applied in offices and homes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a beverage producing area, specially a beverage substance cartridge, a water filling apparatus, a beverage producing equipment, a beverage producing system and a beverage producing method.

2. Related Background Art

Drinking tea and tasting tea is a long-lasting tradition in China. People drinking tea frequently not only could cultivate their taste, but also prolong their life. Especially there are over 100 tea leaf varieties in China, every variety has its unique characteristics, and different brewing methods are for different tea leaf varieties to exert different advantages of every variety during brewing. For example, there are different requirements for water temperatures, brewing times and time.

Meanwhile, traditional tea drinking way is to put tea leaves directly into a tea pot which is then filled with hot water for brewing and then to drink tea, but the inconvenience is that all the process is handled and controlled manually, and this could be realized by people with pretty much spare time or professional tea tasters, while it is too time-consuming for people at offices who want to have tea, and furthermore it is difficult for amateurs to brew tea to the perfect taste.

In order to realize automatic tea brewing, a very simple automatic tea brewing equipment with a single function is designed (for example, refer to the Chinese invention patent with patent application number 200410041385.2). Although the invention is able to brew tea automatically, the tea leaf extraction is pretty slow in the brewing process, so tea drinkers have to wait for a long time, generally several minutes and even longer than ten minutes for some tea leaves, and rapid brewing cannot be realized. Besides, most tea leaves have the perfect taste at comparatively high temperatures, and if waiting time for tea brewing is too long, tea water temperature will drop and have much negative impact on tea taste and aroma.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a beverage substance cartridge, a water filling apparatus, a beverage producing equipment, a beverage producing system and a beverage producing method to solve the problem that a tea brewing equipment of the present technology has problems like slow tea leaf extraction, long tea drinker waiting time, low tea water temperature, bad tea water taste, etc.

In order to realize the above mentioned objects, the invention has adopted the following technical plan:

There is provided a beverage substance cartridge comprising a cartridge body which accommodates substance for beverage production and a sealing cover to seal the substance into the cartridge body, and a side wall of the cartridge body is forming integrated of plural arc parts.

The cartridge body adopts polypropylene material for production.

Convex or concave rings are on a bottom of the cartridge body.

The substance in the cartridge body is any one of or a combination of at least two of tea leaf, dried vegetable, dried fruit and Chinese medicinal herb.

The substance in the cartridge body is any one of or a combination of at least two of coffee, milk tea and tang.

There is provided a water filling apparatus which fills water to the beverage substance cartridge described above comprising a piping section, on the top of piping section has a piercing point which is forming integrated with the piping section, a part of piercing point below has a water-filling nozzle and connected with the piping section.

The shape of the piercing point is cone, polygonal pyramid or multi-edge pyramid.

The number of the water filling nozzles is two, and two water filling nozzles are set under two opposite sides of the piercing point.

A sealing rubber cover is set at external of the piping section to limit length of the piercing point.

There is provided a beverage producing equipment to produce beverage by using the substance in the beverage substance cartridge above comprising:

A beverage substance cartridge putting section which puts the beverage substance cartridge;

A water supplying section which supply water for beverage production; and

A brewing apparatus which brews the substance into beverage;

The brewing apparatus has a heating section which heats water supplied by the water supplying section, a water filling apparatus which fills heated water into the beverage substance cartridge and a steeping section which steeps juice of the substance.

The water supplying section is connected with a water filling pipe of the water filling apparatus.

A controlling section is also included to send commands to the water supplying section, the heating section, the water filling apparatus, the filtering apparatus and the water exporting section.

There is provided a beverage producing system comprising the beverage producing equipment and the beverage substance cartridge described above.

There is provided a beverage producing method to produce beverage by using the beverage producing system, comprising the following steps:

1) The beverage substance cartridge is put in the beverage substance cartridge putting section;

2) The piercing point of the water filling apparatus pierces the bottom of the cartridge body of the beverage substance cartridge, and the piercing point's piercing position is close to side surface of the cartridge body of the beverage substance cartridge;

3) The water supplying section supplies water for beverage production, and meanwhile the heating section heats the water supplied by the water supplying section;

4) Water heated by the water heating section is filled into the beverage substance cartridge through the piping section and the water filling nozzle of the piercing point;

5) Hot water forms vortex when bumping against external convex surface and internal convex edge, and brews the beverage substance; and

6) The water exporting section exports brewed beverage during brewing.

Thanks to the technical features above, compared with the present technology, the invention has the following advantages and positive effects:

The invention provides the beverage substance cartridge, the tea filtering apparatus, the beverage producing equipment, the beverage producing system and the beverage producing method, the water filling apparatus of the beverage producing equipment fills hot water into the bottom of the beverage substance cartridge near the side wall of the cartridge body, and forms vortex in the beverage substance cartridge which speeds up extraction efficiently. Furthermore, inside convex edges are set at the side wall of the beverage cartridge and hot water temperature is high enough to strengthen extraction effects and then realize rapid brewing effects in the tea brewing equipment. The beverage producing equipment adopting the invention could be widely applied in offices and homes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a structural illustration of a beverage producing system of the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a structural illustration of a beverage substance cartridge of the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a transverse cross section drawing of the beverage substance cartridge of the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of a beverage equipment of the beverage substance cartridge of the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a structural illustration of a filling apparatus in the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal cross section drawing of the filling apparatus in the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a structural illustration of a transmitting apparatus of the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 is an action flowchart of the beverage equipment in the embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A preferred embodiment of a beverage substance cartridge, a filtering apparatus, a beverage producing equipment, a beverage producing system and a beverage producing method in the invention will be described in detail hereinbelow with reference to the drawings. However, the invention is not only limited to the embodiment. Specific details are given in the following preferred embodiment of the invention to give the public a thorough understanding about the invention.

Embodiment

As shown by FIG. 1, a beverage producing system 9 includes a beverage substance cartridge 1 and a beverage producing equipment 2 for collaborative use.

The beverage producing equipment 2 has a display screen 21 and a keyboard 22.

The beverage producing equipment 2 has a cavity 23 corresponding to the beverage substance cartridge 1 in size and shape to put the beverage substance cartridge 1, and the cavity 23 has a cover on the top.

The beverage producing equipment 2 has a supporting platform 24, and the supporting platform 24 is a detachable level platform to put cups.

The beverage producing equipment 2 may be used in conjunction with different beverage substance cartridges 1. A user only needs to select a beverage substance cartridge 1, put the cup into the cavity 23 of the beverage producing equipment 2, operate according to prompts on a display screen 21, and then gets brewed beverage in a minute.

As shown by FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the beverage substance cartridge 1 includes a cartridge body 10 and a sealing cover 11.

The cartridge body 10 is used to accommodate substance 40 for beverage production.

The sealing cover 11 is used to seal the substance 40 in the cartridge body 10.

The side wall of the cartridge body 10 is integrated of plural arc sections, an internal convex edge 12 is formed where two adjacent arc sections are jointed, and hence the side wall will have many rolling edges 12. Water will form vortex when water contacts the edge of the cartridge body 10, promote the contact between water and tea leaf, and improve extraction efficiency.

The cartridge body 10 adopts polypropylene substance for production, so it is light and solid. The cartridge body is pierced by the needle-shaped piercing point of the water filling apparatus, and also bear pressure formed on the side wall of the cartridge body when vortex is flowing in the cartridge body.

Convex or sunk circular rings 13 are at the bottom of the cartridge body 10 to make the cartridge body 10 solider and bear the pressure formed on the bottom of the cartridge body 10 by vortex when flowing in the cartridge body 10.

In the embodiment, the diameter of the bottom surface of the cartridge body 10 is 38 mm, the diameter of the sealing cover 11 is 50 mm, the inner diameter of the circular ring at the bottom of the cartridge body 10 is 12 mm, and the outer circle's diameter is 20 mm. The circular ring 13 at the bottom of the cartridge body 10 is raised upwards. The distance between two adjacent edges is 5 mm, and the arched convex between two adjacent edges is 1.2 mm thick.

As shown by FIG. 4, the beverage producing equipment 2 includes a beverage substance cartridge putting section 31, an inputting and displaying section 38, an identifying apparatus 32, a water supplying section 33, a brewing apparatus 934, a water exporting section 35, a controlling section 36 and a beverage substance cartridge collecting section 37.

The beverage substance cartridge putting section 31 which is used to put the beverage substance cartridge 1 includes the cavity 23 as shown in FIG. 1 which corresponds to the beverage substance cartridge 1 in size and shape.

The inputting and displaying section 38 is used to display working information of the beverage producing equipment 2 and information of the beverage substance 40 and also to input control commands, and the inputting and displaying section 38 includes the display screen 21 and the keyboard 22 as shown in FIG. 1.

The display screen 21 displays working status of the beverage producing equipment 2 and also displays relevant knowledge about various beverage substances 40 (such as tea leaf).

The keyboard 22 is set with corresponding keys to selectively control the work of the beverage producing equipment 2, for example, consulting relevant beverage information or choosing to output commands.

The identifying apparatus 32 is used to identify the substance 40 in the beverage substance cartridge 1. The identifying apparatus 32 has an obtaining and identifying section 321, a parameter storing section 322 and a retrieving and judging section 323.

The obtaining and identifying section 321 is used to obtain an identification label 14 in the beverage substance cartridge and identify identification codes corresponding to the identification label 14.

The pattern identifying unit to obtain the identification label 14 is an image pick-up apparatus, such as a camera. The obtaining and identifying section 321 translates the identification label 14 obtained into the identification code readable for the equipment.

A cache (Not shown in the figure) is set inside of the obtaining and identifying section 321 to save identification code and prepare for comparison of the identification code next.

The parameter storing section 322 is used to store brewing parameters.

The water supplying section 33 is used to supply water for beverage production.

The brewing apparatus 934 brews the substance 40 according to the brewing parameters judged by the retrieving and judging section 323, and then forms beverage. The brewing apparatus 934 has a heating section 341, a water-filling section 9342 and a steeping section 343.

The heating section 341 is used to heat water supplied by the water supplying section. The heating section 341 has a temperature sensor connected to the controlling section 36. The temperature sensor detects the temperature of the water in the heating section 341 in a real-time way and displays the temperature data in the display screen 21 through the controlling section 36 for users to learn Teaism in the beverage brewing process.

As shown by FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the water filling apparatus 9342 includes a piping section 3421, a piercing point 3422 integrated with the piping section 3421 is on the top of the piping section, and at least one water filling nozzle 3424 is set under the piercing point 3422 and connected with the piping section 3421. The water filling apparatus 9342 is used to fill heated water into the beverage substance cartridge 1.

The shape of the piercing point 3422 is cone, needle shape or pyramid to pierce the lower surface of the beverage substance cartridge 1, the piping section 3421 is connected with the water supplying section 33 and the heating section 341, and the water supplied by the water supplying section 33 is heated by the heating section 341, then transported to the piping section 3421, and filled in the beverage substance cartridge 1 from the water filling nozzle 3424.

In the embodiment, there are two water filling nozzles 3424 set at each side under piercing points 3422 respectively, the two water filling nozzles 3424 are connected and then form a water filling pipe 3423, the piping section 3421 used to connect the water filling pipe 3423 is a water inflow pipe 3426, and the water filling pipe 3423 is vertical with the water inflow pipe 3426. In other embodiments, the water filling nozzle 3424 could be connected with the water inflow pipe 3426 respectively. After the piercing point 3422 pierces into the beverage substance cartridge 1, the distance between the piercing point 3422 and the side wall of the beverage substance cartridge 1 is only 4 mm, the piercing point 3422 is at the bottom of the beverage substance cartridge 1 and right against the side wall of the beverage substance cartridge 1, and when hot water is filled into the cartridge body 10 rapidly, hot water will hit rolling edges 12 in the side wall of the cartridge body 10, and form vortex to improve contact between water and substance and improve extraction efficiency.

A sealing rubber cover 3425 is set at external of the piping section 3421 to seal parts in the water filling apparatus 9342 except piercing points 3422, strengthen sealing effects and prevent water leakage. A plane baffle is set where the sealing rubber cover 3425 is close to the piercing point 3422 to ensure the sealing connection between the piercing point and the beverage substance cartridge 1.

Owing to comparatively limited volume of the cartridge body of the beverage substance cartridge 1, water should be exported by the water exporting section while water is filled into the cartridge by the water filling apparatus 9342. If beverage substance is kept in the cartridge body of the beverage substance cartridge 1 during the brewing process, water should be exported through the filling apparatus and the water exporting section.

As shown by FIG. 4, the steeping section 343 is used to steep the substance 40. The substance in the embodiment is tea leaf, and the steeping kinds of tea leaf include three kinds namely tea waking, presoaking and extracting.

The water exporting section 35 exports brewed beverage. The water exporting section 35 includes a supporting platform 24 and a water outlet (Not shown in the figure), the water outlet is set right above the supporting platform 24, and the produced beverage flows out from the water outlet. The supporting platform 24 is a hollow structure inside, some small, thin and long holes are on the surface of the supporting platform, and the water overflowing from cups will flow into the cavity of the supporting platform 24 for clearing.

The filtering apparatus filters beverage brewed from the brewing apparatus and keeps the brewed beverage substance in the beverage substance cartridge instead of drunk into mouth.

The controlling section 36 is used to send control commands to the water supplying section 33, the brewing apparatus 934 and the water exporting section 35. The controlling section 36 and the inputting and displaying section 38 have combined action to control displayed content and operation options of the beverage producing equipment 2.

The beverage substance cartridge collecting section 37 is used to collect used beverage substance cartridges 1. The beverage substance cartridge collecting section 37 includes a used cup bucket. The supporting platform 24 is pushed in and pulled out and the rear part is connected with a square used cup bucket. After the brewing process is finished, the mechanical apparatus in the beverage producing equipment inverts the beverage substance cartridge putting section, and discards used beverage substance cartridges to the used cup bucket for collection. After the supporting platform 24 is pulled out, more than one used beverage substance cartridges are dumped at a time.

As shown by FIG. 7, the filtering apparatus 6 and the transmitting apparatus 66 are mounted on a rack 68 inside of the beverage producing equipment 2, the filtering apparatus 6 is set on the top of the rack 68, and the beverage substance cartridge putting section 31 is fixed on the transmitting apparatus 66. The beverage substance cartridge putting section 31 is on the top of the beverage producing equipment 2 under the initial state, and a cover plate moveable is set right above the beverage substance cartridge putting section 31 for users to put the beverage substance cartridge 1; the beverage substance cartridge 1 closely sticks to the transmitting apparatus 6 in operation, and the transmitting apparatus 66 drives the beverage substance cartridge putting section 31 to slantways move or slide so that the beverage substance cartridge putting section 31 is shifted between two positions.

The filtering apparatus 6 also includes a funnel 71 buckled on the reverse side of the base plate 61, the funnel 71 is sealed and connected with the base plate 61 to prevent leakage of tea leaf. The water outlet of the funnel 71 is connected with water exporting section 35 and the funnel 71 is used to gather filtered tea water and transport to the water exporting section 35.

As shown by FIG. 8, the beverage producing method by using the beverage producing system to produce beverage, i.e. the action flow of the beverage producing equipment includes following steps:

To put the beverage substance cartridge 1 in the beverage substance cartridge putting section 31, and cover up the cover (Step 101).

Commands are input by using the keyboard 22 in the inputting and displaying section 38, the controlling section sends commands to the water supplying section 33, the brewing apparatus 34 and the transmitting apparatus 66, and the transmitting apparatus 66 slantways moves the beverage substance cartridge putting section 31 and pushes towards the filtering apparatus 6 (Step 102).

The filtering apparatus 6 pierces the sealing cover 11 of the beverage substance cartridge 1, and the filtering apparatus 6 and the sealing cover 11 forms a filtering screen in conjunction to filter tea leaf (Step 103).

The piercing point 3422 of the water filling apparatus 9342 pierces the bottom of the beverage substance cartridge 1, so the piercing point 3422 is embedded in the bottom surface of the cartridge body 10, and the shortest distance between the piercing point 3422 and the rim of the cartridge body 10 is 4 mm (Step 104).

The water supplying section 33 supplies water for beverage production, and meanwhile the heating section 341 heats the water supplied by the water supplying section 33 (Step 105).

The water heated by the water heating section 341 is filled in the beverage substance cartridge 1 through the piping section 3421 and the water filling nozzle 3424 in sequence (Step 106).

The hot water exported from the water filling nozzle 3424 hits the edge on the side wall of the cartridge body 10, forms vortex and brews tea leaves (Step 107).

The filtering apparatus 6 filters the brewed tea water through the filtering screen when brewing (Step 108).

The tea water filtered is exported to the water exporting section 35 through the funnel 71 (Step 109).

The water exporting section 35 is used to export filtered tea water (Step 110).

After the brewing process is finished, the controlling section 636 sends a command, and the beverage substance cartridge collecting section 37 receives the command and then collects beverage substance cartridges (Step 111).

The water filling apparatus 9342 of the beverage producing equipment 2 fills hot water into the bottom of the beverage substance cartridge near the side wall of the cartridge body 10 and forms vortex in the beverage substance cartridge 1 to speed up the extraction speed. Inside convex edges are set on the side wall of the beverage substance cartridge 1 and hot water temperature is high enough to strengthen extraction effects and then realize rapid brewing effects in the beverage producing equipment 2.

The substance in the cartridge body is any one of or a combination of at least two of tea leaf, dried vegetable, dried fruit and Chinese medicinal herb, and a filtering apparatus should be set to filter used substance residue. The substance in the cartridge body is any one of or a combination of at least two of coffee, milk tea and tang. Beverage substance is rapidly soluble in water, so filtering apparatus is unnecessary. The beverage producing system of the invention is used to produce tea drinks, fruit and vegetable drinks, Chinese medicinal herb drinks for health care, etc., and some tea could be brewed repeatedly for more than one time.

Thanks to adopting technical features above, the invention, compared with present technology, has the following advantages and positive effects:

The invention provides the beverage substance cartridge, the tea filtering apparatus, the beverage producing equipment, the beverage producing system and the beverage producing method, the water filling apparatus of the beverage producing equipment fills hot water into the bottom of the beverage substance cartridge near the side wall of the cartridge body, and forms vortex in the beverage substance cartridge which speeds up extraction efficiently. Furthermore, inside convex edges are set at the side wall of the beverage cartridge and hot water temperature is high enough to strengthen extraction effects and then realize rapid brewing effects in the tea brewing equipment. The beverage producing equipment adopting the invention could be widely applied in offices and homes. 

1. A beverage substance cartridge, comprising: a cartridge which accommodates substance for beverage production; and a sealing cover which seals said substance into said cartridge body; wherein a side wall of said cartridge body is forming integrated of plural arc parts.
 2. The beverage substance cartridge according to claim 1, wherein said cartridge body adopts polypropylene material for production.
 3. The beverage substance cartridge according to claim 1, wherein convex or concave rings are on a bottom of said cartridge body.
 4. The beverage substance cartridge according to claim 1, wherein said substance in said cartridge body is any one of or a combination of at least two of tea leaf, dried vegetable, dried fruit and Chinese.
 5. The beverage substance cartridge according to claim 1, wherein said substance in said cartridge body is any one of or a combination of at least two of coffee, milk tea and tang coffee.
 6. A water filling apparatus which fills water to said beverage substance cartridge described in claim 1, comprising: a piping section; wherein said piping section has a piercing point on the top of said piping section which is forming integrated with said piping section, a part of said piercing point below has at least one water filling nozzle and connected with said piping section.
 7. The water filling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein shape of said piercing point is cone, polygonal pyramid or multi-edge pyramid.
 8. The water filling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the number of said water filling nozzles is two, and two said water filling nozzles are set under two opposite sides of said piercing point.
 9. The water filling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein sealing rubber cover is set at external of said piping section to limit length of said piercing point.
 10. A beverage producing equipment which produce beverage by using said substance in said beverage substance cartridge described in claim 1, comprising: a beverage substance cartridge putting section which put said beverage substance cartridge; a water supplying section to supply water for beverage production; and a brewing apparatus which brew said substance into beverage; wherein said brewing apparatus has a heating section which heat water supplied by said water supplying section, a water filling apparatus which fill heated water into said beverage substance cartridge and a steeping section which steep juice of said substance.
 11. The beverage producing equipment according to claim 10, wherein said water supplying section is connected with a water filling pipe of said water filling apparatus.
 12. The beverage producing equipment according to claim 10, further comprising: a controlling section which sends commands to said water supplying section, said heating section, said water filling apparatus, said filtering apparatus and said water exporting section.
 13. A beverage producing system, comprising: said beverage producing equipment described in claim 12 and said beverage substance cartridge described in claim
 1. 14. A beverage producing method which produce beverage by using said beverage producing system described in claim 13, comprising: the following steps: 1) said beverage substance cartridge is put in said beverage substance cartridge putting section; 2) said piercing point of said water filling apparatus pierces the bottom of said cartridge body of said beverage substance cartridge; and 3) said piercing point's piercing position is close to side surface of said cartridge body of said beverage substance cartridge; 4) said water supplying section supplies water for beverage production, and meanwhile, said heating section heats the water supplied by said water supplying section; 4) water heated by said water heating section is filled into said beverage substance cartridge through said piping section and said water filling nozzle of said piercing point; 5) hot water forms vortex when bumping against external convex surface and internal convex edge, and brews said beverage substance; and 6) said water exporting section exports brewed beverage during brewing. 